News: John 5 Announces Invasion Second Leg

JOHN 5 and the Creatures have announced the second leg of the Invasion Tour 2019. The tour will kick off on October 30 in Michigan and wrap up just before Thanksgiving.

Jared James Nichols, who supported JOHN 5 on the first leg of the Invasion Tour earlier this year, has once again been tapped to open along with additional support from Reverend Jack.

"I'm excited to get back out on the road with The Creatures and play music from the new album," JOHN 5 says. "The response to the first leg of the Invasion Tour earlier this year was amazing and I can't wait to hit even more cities. Jared James Nichols was phenomenal last time around and we are happy to have him join us again."

Released last week, JOHN 5's highly-anticipated Invasion album has received rave reviews all around. Fans were able to get a taste of the album throughout the first half of the year via a series of videos released each month. 

JOHN 5 kicked off the year with the debut video clip from Invasion, the campy animated "Zoinks!", followed by three equally eccentric videos for "Midnight Mass," "I Am John 5" and "Crank It - Living with Ghosts." 

LP Review: "Season of the Witch" by John 5 and the Creatures

Season of the Witch

Let's ignore the elephant in the room. That elephant is an annoying hipster and will go away if drink enough American Lagers.

Being a fan of an artist, in some ways, feels like being their parent.

Personally, I'm always hoping for what's best for the folks whose records I buy, spin, review, etc. The better they do, the better the world is for their music.

It's hard to watch some of them stumble and fall while making the same mistakes they have made in the past. Fans can only stand on the side mute while the choices are made.

In the end though, for me, it's important to watch these people grow and change. Granted, I'm a bit different in that regard. There's a reason why Carnival of Souls and Music From The Elder are my favorite Kiss records and why AC/DC barely merits a notice in my music library....

Album Review: "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor" by Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie is now an elder statesman of metal. He can only be about four to five years away from Alice Cooper like acceptance amongst the elders of America.

It's still a bit difficult to think that twenty three long years have passed since this man's  music first came into my life, White Zombie's "La Sexorcisto." After that album though, they swung in a decidedly techno direction with "Astro Creep" and then moving even further to the darkside with the remixed version of the same album. It was hard to not be offended if you were a young metal head.

Rob then went solo and put out "Hellbilly Deluxe" which was even more of a techno album than the last two White Zombie releases. At this point, Mr. Zombie was dead to me, but here we are about fifteen years into his solo career with the latest record. I was drawn to this album because of Mr. John 5.

Classic Album Review: "Buckethead Land 2" by Buckethead

Let's take another trip in the way back machine. This year, aside from just tracking down new bands and new music, I've also been delving into the past to fill in some holes in my library, or in Buckethead and Steve Vai's cases, right terrible wrongs by adding them in.

I can remember first hearing of Buckethead back in 1998. I was at my friend Trey's house as we were trying to get a band off the ground. (NOTE: We didn't.) At that time in my life, I wasn't really a fan of instrumental guitar to speak of. I had gone through a short phase a few years before, and then I kind of got out of it. Now that I'm older, I'm back into it and really exploring the different guys doing it. That's why I picked up Buckheadland 2.

When I popped it into the CD player, I was expecting some disappointment as I was told that this album wasn't one of Buckethead's better releases. I didn't swear at the stereo like when I listed to John 5 for the first time. But there was definitely a very real response.

Review: "God Told Me To" by John 5

God Told Me To

Once I started playing guitar again, I rediscovered my love of a few things: death metal, instrumental guitar, and Guitar World. This John 5 album really touches on all of those things.

He plays bone crunching metal, all of his solo records are instrumental, and I read about this album in Guitar World.

John 5 is more than just a virtuoso guitar player. He is one of the most important players of our time, but almost no one has heard of him. His two most prominent gigs are as a sideman for Rob Zombie (current) and Marilyn Manson (past).

He has also recorded two albums with David Lee Roth under his given name John Lowery. He's recorded an album with Rob Halford and more. I know this makes him sound like he's a metal guitarist and nothing more, but he's also recorded for KD Lang, and many others. As a young player, his goal was to be a session player California. Well he's achieved that and more.